Puzzles

Each week the Edison School Newsletter will contain a chess puzzle. Those puzzles will link back here and be stored as a collection over the year. The links you find in the section will allow you to try out solutions to those puzzles.

Additional puzzles will be collected and grouped into themes for a more focused study and provide examples of ideas, themes, tactics, and technique.

How to Solve Chess Puzzles

1. Practice - Do a chess puzzle every day. Your mind will start to build a repertoire of patterns and themes. Daily chess puzzles can be found in many places online.
2. Look for checks - Many puzzles are mating puzzles. So a good place to start is by looking for all the checks to the enemy King that are available. This is important because your opponent must play a move that addresses the check; they will have no time or opportunity to carry out threats of their own. Also note checks that your opponent can play! - This is give you a hint on how to proceed.
3. Make a note of protected or guarded squares - This will help you avoid playing a move that will lose a piece, or allow the opponent to counterattack. In marking these enemy controlled squares, you will also become aware of those squares that are not guarded. These are key locations.
4. Make note of the space around the target King - Where are the places the enemy King can escape to, if checked? Can those squares be controlled by your pieces? Are they guarded by his pieces? This will help you find the correct path to pursue.
5. Try playing moves in your head - pick the best, most forcing move and keep playing move-and-reply sequences until there are no longer any forcing moves (the position becomes quiet). Make a note of this position and decide if you would play it. Do this for two or three candidate moves and their resulting positions, then pick the best one.

How to use the new online interactive chess game viewer to solve puzzles